


Lopsided

by Sierra_Sitruc



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-23
Updated: 2015-02-27
Packaged: 2018-03-14 17:32:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 19,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3419474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sierra_Sitruc/pseuds/Sierra_Sitruc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Partnerships have ended over less, but Maka doesn’t know how to go back in time and undo the moment Soul made it clear her feelings were unrequited. Manga divergence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Askew

**Author's Note:**

> This begins after Soul was made a death scythe and just before they go into the Book of Eibon to save Kid. Artistic license—everyone is now magically 18 or older (except Fire and Thunder).

In the rush of preparations to save Kid, Maka hunkered down at the library researching one last question she had about the limitations of her death scythe partner. They would need every skill available if Eibon was involved, and unlike Soul, Maka relished the new privileges they had earned at the library. No more borrowing Papa’s card to access the books she wanted. No more lying. She could ask for any book she wanted.

But she might have gone overboard.

She’d created a nest of a dozen books on the table she was using. She was almost impossible to spot, hunched over behind her stacks of thick texts, nose inches from the pages. She was grateful Soul wasn’t around to catch her geeking out, though he said he’d meet her after he finished a brief training session with her _father_ of all people. Unfortunately, no one was better qualified to induct a new death scythe than an actual death scythe. Marie could only take Soul so far.

Realizing it was near the time Soul had said he would be finished, Maka organized the books into ones she would take home and ones she would return to the librarian’s care. She balanced the return stack of books in her arms and shuffled her feet toward the librarian’s desk.

“Do you need help with those?” a male voice asked.

Maka smiled up at him. “Sure,” she said, allowing him to take half of her books from her precarious hold. She recognized him as a weapon from the class below hers. He stood out for both his promising talent as a battle-axe and for his height. He was taller than any other student at the DWMA. He was also incredibly handsome. He was the exact type Liz squealed over.

“I’m Finn,” he said.

“Maka,” she replied.

“I know,” he said. “Everyone knows Maka, the meister who made a death scythe.”

“Well, Soul did half the work,” she said, shrugging. Maybe more than half. Their partnership was a little lopsided.

Finn shook his head. “He did? That’s something. Partnerships aren’t always split so equally.”

Was he reading her mind?

“I’m lucky, I guess,” she said.

They reached the librarian’s desk and Maka relinquished her beloved books. Now she just needed to make a second trip to check out the books she’d left behind.

“Thanks for the help,” she told Finn, turning to walk back to the table she’d been hogging for the past couple of hours. To her surprise, Finn followed.

“Actually…I had a question for you,” he said. His voice lowered. They stopped beside Maka’s table. She craned her head to look at him, stunned to see his cheeks were pink.

“Go ahead,” she said, curious what had him so nervous.

“I’ve been here at the library all afternoon trying to work up the guts to ask you—” he cleared his throat. “Will you please consider being my partner?”

“Your—your partner?”

“I won’t hold you back. I’m at least as good as Soul was before he became a death scythe. A scythe and a battle-axe can’t be too different. And—and I know you and I would get along really well.”

Maka shoved down the elation bubbling in her belly. It was her first partnership request. He wanted to be _her_ partner. For all the times that Soul had been asked by other meisters, even more now that he’d reached death scythe status, no one had ever asked her. Just recently Soul had claimed it was because she had no sex appeal. She’d wanted to punch him in his stupid, sharp teeth.

Now here was an attractive, popular boy asking to be her new weapon.

She was going to make Soul eat his words.

“I’m honored that you would think of me,” Maka said sincerely. “But I’m very happy with the partner I have.”

Finn deflated, his shoulders slumping. “I thought you’d say that. My friends, my partner—everyone said it was stupid to ask.”

“Really? Why?” No one had a problem asking _Soul_ to drop _her_.

“I expected you’d shoot me down,” he said. His eyes flickered nervously around the room. “Everyone’s been too chicken to approach you. We know how hung up you are on your partner.”

Maka blanched. “Hung up on—Soul?”

“What, you’re not?” Finn looked at her skeptically.

Her cheeks burned. “Um…we’re just partners.” Although she wanted more, she knew it was pathetic to put her feelings for Soul out there between them. She wasn’t his type. It was a bad idea to risk their spectacular soul resonance for something like a crush. She’d also witnessed first-hand what happened to a weapon-meister pairing when it went down in flames.

She didn’t want to screw things up with Soul, especially not with Asura around.

“If I were your weapon, I know I wouldn’t want to be _just_ your partner,” Finn said.

“Ha, uh, thank you?” she said uncertainly.

“At least—think about me if things ever go sour with your death scythe?”

“Sure.”

After an awkward, blushing goodbye, Finn left and Maka went back to her books.

A surly presence sauntered around the nearest bookshelf. Maka froze. Had Soul heard? She’d been so caught up in the excitement of finally being appreciated as a meister, she’d failed to remember he was on his on his way to meet her.

“What was that about?” Soul asked.

“Finn was asking me if I would be his partner,” she said, forgetting to gloat. Her heart raced unevenly, threatening to beat right out of her chest.

“No,” Soul said. Suddenly she saw how stiff he stood. The distance he left between them. “The part...where you want to be more than partners. The part where everyone seems to know this but me.”

He had heard.

She swallowed. She’d prepared for this possibility. Partnerships had been destroyed by less than unrequited feelings. She did what Soul would—played it cool.

Maka forced a shy laugh. “It’s not a big deal. Of course I have a little crush on you. Most of the girls here do.”

He stared, adjusting his bag on his shoulder. “Maka…You’re my meister. That’s it.”

“I know that,” she scoffed. Outwardly, she needed to be as blasé about this as she could. If Soul suspected anything deeper than a crush—she didn’t know what it would do to them. “I’m not stupid.”

“I would die for you. I care about you…but I _don’t_ want to be more than partners,” he said bluntly.

“I know,” she repeated. “Why do you think I’ve said nothing? I can’t help my feelings.” She straightened her back, summoning all her courage. “Unlike my father, I do have some restraint. I’m not going to throw myself at you. Our soul resonance, our friendship—that’s too important to let something as silly as this get in the way.”

Soul raised an eyebrow, as skeptical as Finn. “What—what do you want me to do?”

“Nothing,” she said emphatically. “I want to go on like this never happened.”

Soul released a loud breath. “Good. Me too.” He slumped over in relief. “Now can we go home? I’m starving.”

It was easy to pretend it hadn’t happened. Maka cooked dinner at their apartment while Soul lounged around watching television. She stole a glance at his soul and was pleased to see he was at peace. All she had to do was maintain that her feelings were nothing to alarm him—nothing to wreck a partnership over—and this business with the Book of Eibon would go on as if Finn hadn’t ratted her out to her weapon. She wrinkled her nose. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think Finn had done it on purpose.

Over dinner, Soul finally asked for the details of her conversation with Finn, and Maka remembered with glee that she had wanted to make him eat his words.

“I’m not sure what all you heard,” Maka said carefully, holding back a wicked smile. “He did say he thought he was at least as good as you were before you were a death scythe. He also thought we would get along—not just as partners.”

Soul laughed. “You just ate up all his crap, didn’t you?”

She flinched, then stabbed her fork into a carrot roughly. “What crap?”

“All that stuff about wanting to be more than partners with you. He was trying to seduce you into picking him. He didn’t mean it.”

“What—you don’t think a guy like Finn would want me?” she asked. She couldn’t keep the bite from her tone. The conversation wasn’t going the direction she had hoped.

“I think we’ve had this conversation before,” Soul teased, ignoring her ire. “A popular guy like Finn? I hate to say it, but he was probably just after your meister skills and using _every_ weapon he had against you. He’s at a dead end with his current partner—and his pretty face won’t work on Black Star.”

“Was that supposed to be a compliment?” She gripped her fork harder, struggling not to throw it at Soul’s dumb, smirking face. Why did she like this jerk again?

 

 

Staring at the Book of Eibon’s manuscript, Soul marveled at his own stupidity. Maka had been hiding the nature of this book from him for months. She’d hidden other things from him, too. He resisted rolling his eyes as he thought about the incident in the library. That Finn. Maybe Soul had taken it for granted that no one was interested in his sexually unappealing meister. Honestly, he’d expected other weapons to approach her. When it hadn’t happened, he’d blamed her looks and his own menacing nature for warding off the other weapons.

Wrong. It was just Maka’s feelings for him scaring everyone away. Blatant feelings, according to everyone. Yet he hadn’t noticed.

Now, about to leap into the unknown dangers of Eibon’s book, he couldn’t stop himself from looking for the signs he’d failed to see. Maka stood in the circle beside him while Eruka called out her witch nonsense. Maka wasn’t sending any feelings his way. She was focused on their mission, like always. She didn’t glance in his direction or even reach for his hand. She was the epitome of aloofness.

Luckily, he had other things to occupy his mind once Eruka relocated them to the inside of the book. The Index was delighted to lead them through the chapters and to the brink of insanity.

The first chapter? Lust.

Soul grappled for Maka’s hand. They needed to stay close while they looked for Kid.

“Should I transform—” he started to ask her when the world unexpectedly flipped. Pages turning, he surmised. He kept a tight grip on Maka’s hand as they fell, landing gently on their feet in a strange room.

It reminded him of the room where the little demon lived. Red silken curtains encircled the room. Soul guessed that if he tried to push past them, he’d find nothing but darkness. He clutched Maka’s hand tighter. Whatever challenge approached, he wanted her close.

“Why is there a bed?” she asked softly, leaning on his arm.

Sure enough, there was a bed in the center of the room. A bed draped in black silks that clung to it like shadows, and large enough to sleep a half a dozen people. He took a step back, wary of the bed’s purpose.

“I don’t think that bed is good news,” Soul said.

Where the hell were the rest of their friends? Had the Index separated them? He was glad he’d held onto Maka’s hand. Her hand that was definitely creeping up his arm.

“What are you doing?” he asked. She blinked back at him, and smiled strangely.

Her hand crossed to his chest. Fingers splayed out, dragging down over his tie toward his belly button. Lightning fast, he grabbed her wrist before it could sneak any lower.

“Maka. Get a hold of yourself.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” she said. Oh, she _knew_ what he meant. Her breasts pressed against him.

He shoved her away without thinking. The bed was somehow right behind her and she landed on her back against the silky black sheets. She fixed a hungry gaze on him, green eyes consumed with the chapter’s namesake. His mind went momentarily blank.

“This—this is Lust,” he said. “And you are, I hate to say, with the very object of your lust. You can’t—you can’t think about me like that.”

Maka tilted her head. “You don’t control my thoughts. I can think about you however I want.”

“No—you need to be reasonable for a moment. How do we get out of this room?”

She giggled. “I think there’s only one way to get out of here.” She reached for his tie, attempting to yank him down on the bed with her.

“We’re not doing that!” he hissed, removing his tie completely and throwing it at her in frustration.

“Soul, I’m serious. I think…I think it’s the only way we can get out of here,” she said, her voice softer this time. “It must be my fault.”

He was startled when her eyes began to fill with tears. “Your fault? What—why the fuck would this be your fault?”

“Because…because I want you,” she whispered.

Before he could push her away, her lips were against his—and hell if it didn’t go straight to his cock. Her mouth was inviting and felt _so good_. His hands itched to pull her closer. His tongue wanted to tangle with hers. He wanted to keep kissing her. Maka, his meister.

Maka!

He flung her back onto the bed and scuttled away, putting distance between them again.

“Don’t touch me! You’re not yourself,” he huffed. Now he was growing more afraid of what _he_ might do. It was the power of the chapter—the temptation. It could force you to do something you normally wouldn’t even in your wildest dreams. Because he didn’t want Maka. She was his partner. He’d known her since they were kids. She was his best friend.

Hell, he was still wrapping his head around her having a crush on him.

“I may be a little influenced by the chapter,” Maka admitted. “But…this chapter _is_ about lust.”

“Resisting lust,” he said.

“I don’t see another way out of this room, do you?”

He refused to answer, circling the room and throwing every curtain aside. As he suspected, it was nothing but black walls. They were stuck here.

“See? No other way out,” she said.

“That doesn’t mean sex is the answer,” he said petulantly.

“You’re probably right,” she said, sitting up on the bed. Soul gritted his teeth as he watched her skirt ride up her thighs. Shit, she was doing that on purpose. She must know legs were his weakness. And her legs looked good in the spartoi uniform. They would probably feel even better wrapped around him—

No. He couldn’t think like that. It was the chapter’s doing.

“Think, Maka. How do we get out of here?”

“I—I don’t know. I can’t think! I think this room is—is doing something to me.”

“Don’t worry,” he said. He kept his gaze on the floor, avoiding eye contact. “It’s doing the same thing to me. Just focus. We’re here to save Kid, not die of horniness.”

She whimpered. “Are you sure?”

He made the mistake of looking at her. Her cheeks were flushed pink, and she was biting down on her lip hard. And her hand. The hand he’d held hundreds of times as he turned into a scythe—was smashed beneath her underwear, her skirt pushed aside to give him a perfect view.

“St—stop that!” he choked out. But he kept staring, entranced by the way her fingers moved roughly beneath the cotton. The damn underwear was really blocking his view.

“I can’t,” she moaned. Her fingers moved faster.

“You can’t—you can’t do that.” This was Lust. Who knew what would happen if she gave into it. Her breath came faster with tiny whimpers interjected between them. Her legs trembled. She moaned. She was—fuck, she was going to come.

“Stop!” he yelled. Bracing himself, he leapt on the bed.

He grabbed her wrist and pinned it to the bed. He made quick work of the other one, successfully pissing his meister off. “Damn it! Let me finish!” she said, wriggling beneath him.

“Don’t move!” he said. His cock was harder than he could ever remember, and if she felt it—he’d never be able to explain. How could he face her after they escaped this book? If they escaped.

He realized what a perilous position he’d put himself in when Maka’s legs linked around his hips and tugged him against her.

It was his turn to whimper. “We—we can’t. It’s the book.”

She thrust her hips upward, grinding into his hard cock. “I think we can,” she murmured, lips at his ear. He shivered.

They didn’t have time for this. They were supposed to be searching for…something.

Maka’s hand groped him through his pants, and he was lost.

 

 

As the Index dropped them into the first chapter, Maka felt something bizarre happen. She was holding Soul’s hand, ready to kick the ass of whatever challenge lust had for them, when she saw her partner’s soul rip away—as well as her friends. Everyone separated in different directions.

But the pressure on her hand never let up.

She landed in a gorgeous room filled to bursting with flowers and soft pillows. There were no doors or windows, just pale green walls. It was reminiscent of the feminine colors she had chosen for her bedroom. She supposed it was meant to lull her into a sense of comfort.

“Where are we?” Soul asked.

She realized _he_ was still holding her hand. Not Soul, the imposter-Soul.

“Ah, I see the game,” she said, glaring at the image of her partner. The room, the flowers, and Soul himself, were all just temptations from her mind. “No wonder they wanted me to go on this mission.” Between her soul perception and her resistance to madness, she was practically designed to fight evils like this book.

“What are you talking about?” Soul asked, rubbing circles on her palm with a fingertip.

She leapt back from him. “You’re not the real Soul,” she said. She laughed humorlessly. “The real Soul wouldn’t be caught dead in a room like this with me. Too uncool.”

And just like that the image of Soul and the room vanished, and the long-nosed Index appeared in front of her—Fire and Thunder at his feet. As children, they must have been unaffected by lust. Thank god.

“Good to see you’re safe,” she told them. They nodded, grinning up at her.

“That was the fastest I’ve ever seen a human escape this chapter,” the Index said mildly.

Maka paid him no mind, using her soul perception to search for her friends. They were spread out across the chapter, but for some reason Tsubaki and Liz’s souls seemed to be in the most distress. Their wavelengths pulsed erratically.

“What’s wrong with them?” she asked the Index, pointing in the girls’ direction.

“Those who are most susceptible to this sin will be the first to lose their souls,” the Index answered.

Maka gazed in Soul’s direction. He seemed steady, though his wavelength occasionally faltered. He was probably trapped with a copy of Blair rubbing her breasts against his face. As much as Maka’s instinct urged her to save Soul first, he could wait. If Blair had been good for anything, it was teaching him to control his lustful impulses.

Speak of the devil. Blair suddenly appeared with a crackle at Maka’s side.

“Maka!” Blair said. “You’re free!”

“Yes, but the others—” Maka started to explain.

“Need your help, quickly!” Blair interrupted, jumping from foot to foot and wringing her hands. “The lust spells here are dangerously strong.”

Maka’s eyes widened. “Can’t you help me?”

“It took all my magic to get myself out of there. I can’t risk it again,” Blair said with a pout. “ _You_ have to do it—now!”

Maka steadied her nerves. If the Index was to be believed, Tsubaki was in the most danger. Maka would help her first. Once her goal was decided, the book did the rest. It teleported her to Tsubaki’s side as quickly as it had caused Maka to vanish from the flowery room she’d started in.

Maka immediately regretted her role in the mission when she found a naked Tsubaki clambering on top of an equally naked Black Star.

Blushing to the roots of her hair, Maka tapped Tsubaki on the shoulder before quickly averting her eyes. “Tsubaki, that’s not the real Black Star.”

“What?” Tsubaki squeaked, falling off the futon to the floor. The image of Black Star disappeared wordlessly, leaving only an imprint on the bedding behind. Tsubaki was breathless and even redder than Maka as she rushed to find her discarded clothes. “What’s going on? Where’s Black Star?”

“I don’t have time to explain everything,” Maka said. If Tsubaki was this close to losing her soul to the book, Liz must not be far behind. “I’m going to use my soul perception to find the others. The Index should be able to take you to where Blair, Fire and Thunder are waiting.”

Maka set her next destination for Liz.

In a luxurious room painted in gold, Maka found Liz in a more creative situation than Tsubaki. Maka dimly wondered if the real Kid would believe sixty-nine was a symmetrical position. The imposter-Kid certainly seemed to enjoy it.

Maka would have to bleach her eyes after this. She held back the urge to puke.

“Your pussy is so fucking symmetrical,” imposter-Kid panted.

Maka let out a yelp and hurried to bring Liz back to reality.

As the imposter-Kid vanished, the revelation that the real Kid was still trapped deeper in the book hit Liz hard.

“God damn it!” Liz shrieked. “And I’m just wasting time here in this stupid place—with a fraud!”

“It’ll be okay. I promise. I’m going to get the others. We’ll work together and get Kid back, all right?” Maka said, hoping she sounded reassuring in spite of her crippling embarrassment.

Liz nodded. “You’re right. We’ve still got several more chapters to go.”

“And you’ll need to be dressed,” Maka reminded her matter-of-factly.

Liz growled. “Never speak of this again,” she said.

“I don’t know if I could,” Maka said, already struggling to decide who needed help next—Kilik or Black Star. Kilik’s soul was closer, so she targeted him, mentally preparing herself for another humiliating view of a friend.

Kilik was in a better state than Liz and Tsubaki in that he was at least fully dressed. But Maka would never forget what he’d been doing with his face between an imposter-Patti’s thighs.

Kilik shrugged helplessly. “Please don’t tell Patti about this.”

Maka shuddered. “Maybe Blair can wipe my memories after this is all over.”

“We can only hope,” Kilik grumbled as Maka departed to save Black Star from his own perverted mind.

“Tsu—Tsubaki!” Black Star cried out.

Maka furrowed her brow, half-thinking she’d fallen back into Tsubaki’s fantasy. It closely mirrored what she had already seen. She covered her eyes, hoping that Blair really could wipe her memories.

“Black Star! That’s not Tsubaki,” she said sternly. The wet noises in the background quieted.

“Damn it!” he yelled as his weapon disappeared from her place on top of him. He quickly recovered. “I—I knew that.”

“If you knew, then what were you doing?” Maka asked, keeping her eyes shielded. She heard rustling noises. She hoped he was dressing.

“Just…trying to…figure out how to beat this chapter!”

“By having sex with Tsubaki?”

“Shut—shut up!”

“The others are waiting with the Index. I need to find Patti and Soul,” she said. She’d been monitoring their wavelengths, and they were growing more and more chaotic. As with Kilik and Black Star, it was hard to tell who needed her sooner—who was closest to losing to the temptations of the book.

In the end, Patti’s soul was nearest.

Maka barely made it in time. “Patti!” she screamed. She pulled a naked Patti off a very willing and eager Kilik. Interesting. But Maka couldn’t waste time considering the implications. If Patti was this close to danger, so was Soul.

“Patti, the real Kilik and the others are waiting with the Index.”

“Haa-huh?” Patti panted, still dazed. “Where did Kilik go?”

“I don’t have time to explain,” Maka snapped. “This is part of the chapter, you horn-dog!” An unfair insult. Patti had endured it better and longer than most of their friends.

“Oh. Oh!” she said, her cognitive abilities returning. “We need to save Kid!”

“Exactly. Get dressed. I’ll see you once I have Soul back.” Maka bit down on her bottom lip as she set her sights on Soul and teleported from Patti’s side.

This room was distinctive from the others. Blacks and reds. Lots of silk. It was inviting. Seductive.

Maka tried to resolve herself to whatever she would find there. It wasn’t as if Soul _wanted_ her to see him like this. And above all her feelings for him, Soul was her best friend. They had grown stronger together, and overcome so much. They could get through anything.

But that didn’t prevent her heart from cracking as she saw him atop another girl, thrusting passionately against her like—like an animal. Each thrust made a warm, wet sound. Was she—was she too late?

She stepped forward weakly, reaching her hand out numbly. She should have gone to Soul first and taken him along in his scythe form or something. Why had she thought he could wait? He’d needed her—

Maka stilled as the moaning from the girl beneath Soul reached her ears. The moans seemed…familiar.

“Please—please get inside me,” her own voice whispered breathily from the bed. The imposter-Maka’s eyes flashed to the real Maka’s, furious at the interruption.

“I—I shouldn’t,” Soul grunted back.

Well. At least it wasn’t too late.

 

 

Soul knew he should’ve stopped it ages ago. Maka was half-naked in only her skirt, her underwear somewhere on the floor. He’d managed to keep his pants on, but Maka had unzipped them and shoved his boxers out of the way so she could access his cock.

Every limit he’d set had been broken. At first it was kissing but nothing else. Then it was tops off but nothing else. Then it was just through underwear. And now he was rubbing his bare cock against her pussy, practically fucking her. As long as he didn’t put his cock inside her it was fine, he lied to himself.

He was wondering how long he would last against her begging when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Foggy with lust, his head turned slowly to face the intruder.

“Soul?” Maka asked, her face redder than he had ever seen it. It was not the same Maka who had her bare breasts crushed against him. It was not the same Maka he was nearly fucking.

“M—Maka?” he stuttered.

Maka looked between him and the sweaty image of herself on the bed in confusion. _She_ was the real Maka, he realized. What had he been thinking? His partner would never succumb to lust like this. He should have known better.

The Maka beneath him disappeared and Soul’s softening cock smashed against silken sheets that still smelled like sex. The unnatural lust faded away. His focus returned.

“If you’d…gone any further, you’d be trapped here like Kid,” she said quietly.

Oh. Right. Kid. The friend they were here to save. Instead, Soul had thought it’d be a good idea to fuck his meister.

“Shit,” he said. He ground his face into the sheets, humiliation washing over him. This was worse than screwing up his piano recital in front of a hundred of his parents’ guests, only to have Wes bring him the sheet music he was meant to have memorized.

It was worse than any embarrassing moment he could think of from his short life.

But Kid needed him. Still face-planted on the bed, Soul tucked himself in and zipped up his pants before turning over to search for the rest of his uniform. With another wave of humiliation, he realized Maka was holding his shirt out to him.

“Thanks,” he said gruffly. Once he was clothed completely, he was ready to face Maka. “And…I’m sorry. I don’t…I don’t know what happened in here.”

Maka shrugged. “It’s all right. You weren’t the only one who nearly lost it.”

“What—did you—?” he couldn’t finish his question.

“The book tried, but with my soul perception it was easy to see that…it wasn’t real,” she said, stumbling over her words. “I’ll have to tell you about it later. The others are waiting for us.”

She held out her hand. He felt dirty accepting it, knowing what his hands had been covered with just moments ago. He reminded himself she was wearing gloves to protect herself, and took her hand.

A moment later he stood amongst his friends, the atmosphere decidedly different from what it had been before they entered the book. He wasn’t the only one shaken by their ordeal.

“Maka and Soul are here!” Blair cheered, bouncing over to hug them. She clunked their heads together as she hooked her elbows around their necks. “Everyone made it through safely. Mr. Index can take us to the next chapter now!”

“I hope it’s not as tough as this one,” Maka said, stepping back after Blair released them.

Blair was positively bubbly. “It will get much easier from here. As young and hormonal as you are, Lust was bound to be the most difficult chapter.”

Maka growled. “You could have warned us!”

“How was I to know what would happen?” she asked, shifting back into her cat form.

“Let’s just get out of here,” Soul said, hands in his pockets. The others murmured their agreement. As he pointedly avoided looking Maka in the eye, it was hard not to notice he wasn’t the only one ignoring her. And Maka herself refused to look at anyone but Blair. What had happened in the time before Maka had come for him?

The Index flipped the page abruptly, tossing them unceremoniously into Gluttony.

 

 

Unlike Lust or Gluttony, Envy ripped Maka apart. She wiped away the tears when Soul stumbled across her, but the raw wounds of what Envy had told her remained.

Not all partnerships were equal, and hers was the example. Making Soul a death scythe had been thanks to Soul leading her. She was stupid to think Soul would want to deepen their partnership to anything more. He’d need to carry her even more if their relationship became romantic. But then…

An image of herself half-naked beneath Soul floated across her mind. What had that been about then? She had no sex appeal.

Then she replayed his words. _“I shouldn’t,”_ he’d said, even as imposter-Maka had begged him for more. And how long had he been in there with her? Longer than any of the others had been with their phantoms.

He’d only just learned about her feelings for him. Maybe through his confusion she’d popped into his head and appeared in the room with him. Hell, maybe that was why all their friends had only seen other meisters and weapons. Not because of any innate desire they had for each other, but because they were near and on their minds.

Or maybe it could only be images of those already in the book. That had to be it. She swallowed back the bitter disappointment.

“Are you all right?” Soul asked, squeezing her hand.

“I need to talk to you about something,” she said. Maka let herself fall into one of the many chairs that littered Sloth. “I’m sorry for holding you back all this time. After all this—and talking to Finn at the library—I realize it’s the truth. Our partnership isn’t equal.”

“What are you saying?”

“I don’t know if we should be partners anymore. I’m holding you back, and things are going to get weird after everything that happened in the first chapter,” she said, cheeks burning.

Soul furrowed his brow. “That’s not your fault,” he said.

“Oh, it’s not?” she slouched in the chair. “Then why were you and I in that room together? It’s not because you want me. You’ve made that very clear.”

“I don’t know why you were in that room with me,” he said. “I thought it was you. Up until the end, I believed I was keeping _you_ from being trapped in the book. Stupid of me, huh?”

“I’m sure you just saw me…because you’re worried my feelings will threaten our partnership.” It was time to give up on Soul completely. Let him go like Mama had let go of Papa. She would let Soul go on to the next chapter without her.

“That’s not—”

Distantly, she heard another voice. Giriko. What was he doing here? She couldn’t find it in her to give a damn. She just wanted to lay down on a bed and stay there forever…

 

 

Giriko’s unexpected kick sent Soul flying across the room. He bulldozed several chairs before he slowed to a stop. His ears rang as he stood, shaking off the pain Giriko’s big-ass foot had caused.

He searched for Maka, expecting to see her running to his side, ready to fight the bastard. Soul certainly felt violent enough to do some damage. Maybe slice Giriko in two.

What he saw instead was Maka lying listlessly beneath Giriko on the bed. It changed Soul’s violent inclination to pure insanity. That was his meister, and the usual protective urges flowed through him with a more possessive edge than usual. He blamed Lust for his new desire to hack Girkio into a hundred pieces instead of two.

Then again, blowing the bastard up entirely would be even cooler.

In the end, Soul and Maka defeated Giriko, though they barely walked away with their lives—or in Maka’s case, carried away. Her body hung weakly off Soul’s back, and he could smell and feel her blood trickling onto his shoulder. Despite the agony he knew she was suffering, Maka summoned the energy to support Kid against Noah. Soul’s meister really was amazingly strong.

 

Soul carried Maka on his back until they were herded into the infirmary of the academy. Although they had done some quick first aid where they had defeated Noah, several of them, including Maka, needed stitches. It was not the most victorious battle Soul could remember. Stein was severely injured. Sid had lost his arm, and Tezca was probably dead.

At least Stein could fix Sid’s arm.

It took all night for Nygus to finish sewing and bandaging everyone. Soul dozed off in one of the empty beds near Maka around dawn, relishing the painkillers Nygus shoved down his throat.

He awoke to the sun in his eyes. It had to be nearly noon, but his eyelids drooped shut again. Then he heard what had disturbed his sleep: the voices of Black Star and Maka. They were quiet, especially for Black Star, but it was definitely the two of them.

“You won’t tell her, will you?” Black Star’s unmistakable voice asked. It was unlike him to sound so…vulnerable.

“Of course not,” Maka replied. “I don’t want to think or talk about it again, if I can help it. I even asked Blair if she could wipe what I saw from my mind. She said she didn’t do that kind of magic.”

Soul’s ears perked. They were talking about what had happened in the Lust chapter.

“That sucks,” Black Star said. “I really wish you hadn’t seen me—like that. With her.”

Maka made a noise of agreement. “If it helps, I don’t think anyone was in complete control over who they saw.”

Soul tensed, suddenly afraid. He didn’t think Maka would tell his secrets—she never had before—but this was uncharted territory.

Black Star snorted. “Maka, did you see _everyone_?”

“Everyone,” she groaned. “And it seemed like…” she hesitated. The silence dragged on. Soul had to restrain himself from telling her to spit it out.

“What?” Black Star prompted, as eager to hear as Soul.

“It seemed like they only saw those who were already in the book.”

Black Star guffawed, crowing loudly.

“Shh! Quiet!” Maka hushed him. “You’ll wake up the others.”

“You gotta tell me, who saw who? C’mon!”

“Nope. I’m sworn to secrecy.”

“Maka! I’m your oldest friend—”

“Do you want me to tell Tsubaki about—”

There was a sound that Soul assumed was Black Star muffling her mouth with his hand. “No! I understand,” he was contrite. “You must take what you saw to your grave.”

“That’s what I thought,” she said smugly.

“Although I can bet who you and Soul saw—”

“Black Star! I will tell her _every_ detail!”

Black Star was cackling as he went out the door. “I still know who you saw!”

Soul remained motionless in his bed, churning over the information from Black Star and Maka. It was a relief it wasn’t his fault Maka had appeared to him. Knowing the others had suffered a similar experience was a small consolation to his embarrassment. If even Black Star was embarrassed, Maka must have gotten an eyeful of _something_.

But then…had Maka seen himself? He bit his tongue as a memory of her quick fingers attacked him. One thing he knew for sure, it was going to be impossible to claim his meister had no sex appeal from now on.

 

 

Maka and Soul didn’t speak about the events that happened inside the Book of Eibon. No one else spoke of it either. Spartoi as a whole strived to bury the book in the past as their dedication to defeating the kishin became their sole focus.

Determined to be the best meister she could be, Maka stamped down her feelings for her weapon and hid them deep in her soul. She hoped her partner never noticed them when they resonated, or if he did, he mistook them for feelings of friendship. He didn’t have soul perception as she did, so it was within the realm of believability he wouldn’t notice.

The constant hiding, however, was what finally broke her. It reminded her too much of Mama those last years of her marriage to Papa. Pretending things were fine. That she was happy the way things were. Maka wasn’t fine. She wasn’t happy. So she made plans to ask Lord Death to reassign her a new partner once the kishin was defeated.

Things hadn’t gone as planned. The kishin was defeated, Crona was left behind on the moon, and Lord Death was dead.

Maka waited until Kid had settled into his role as the new Lord Death before she approached him. While he occasionally worse the same black cloak his father had, today he wore his usual symmetrical suit and stood in front of the mirror of the Death Room, patiently waiting for her to speak.

“Lord Death,” she said, “I have a request.”

“I have a request for you, too,” he said. “And call me Kid, please.”

“You have a request?” she asked in disbelief. “What is it?”

Kid’s expression was flat and unflinching. “I think you and Soul shouldn’t be partners anymore.”

Maka floundered. The speech she’d prepared went out the window. “You think—we shouldn’t be partners?” she repeated dumbly. She’d expected an argument, not an offer of exactly what she’d come for.

“Yes. Your soul perception is growing stronger, isn’t it?”

“I suppose a little,” she said. Thanks to Soul’s help.

“There’s another weapon who would be good for helping you strengthen it. Someone better than Soul.”

“Better than Soul?” She didn’t believe that.

“You’re too close to Soul. Someone new will help you progress faster. Stein agrees,” Kid said. His golden eyes focused on her and she felt them pierce her sharply, right to her soul. He gave her a meaningful look, and she suddenly understood Kid’s intentions. He was offering an excuse to give to Soul, allowing himself to take the blame for something Maka already wanted. It would make for a smoother transition, and hurt Soul less this way. Maybe there friendship would survive.

“I understand,” she said. “What partner did you have in mind for me?”

“It’s someone who’s been dying to work with you, and conveniently, his partner could really use Soul’s guidance to become a better meister.”

Maka knew exactly the pair Kid meant, but she asked who it was anyway.

“Finn Riley and Pippa Branna. I suspect you’ll find it easy to go from a scythe to a battle-axe. The handling is similar.”

“It might take some getting used to,” she said. She smiled even as her eyes watered. She was going to miss her partner.

“We can try it on a temporary basis, if you’d prefer,” he said, wincing at her tears.

“No,” she said. “This is for the best. Time away from Soul will make me…stronger.”

And so her partnership with Soul was dissolved.

 

 

Pippa Branna was no Maka Albarn, Soul thought—for the umpteenth time—as Pippa flung him across the training room with a clatter. He stumbled to his feet, growling under his breath.

“I’m sorry! It’s that weight difference again,” Pippa squeaked. She kept handling him like a battle-axe. But he wasn’t an axe. He was a goddamn death scythe!

“It’s fine,” Soul lied.

It was only the beginning of his second week with Pippa. He should probably give her a chance. But it was hard when he was thinking of the boxes of Maka’s things and the empty shelves where her books used to sit in their apartment. Blair had gone with her, much to his and Maka’s surprise. He couldn’t help thinking he’d lost a secret argument he didn’t know they were having, and Blair had sided with his meister.

He also didn’t understand how Finn was better for Maka’s soul perception than he was. Soul had been her partner when she found the kishin! He and Maka had been undefeatable, and Kid fucked everything up.

Soul took his anger out on Kid through mental warfare. Soul had taken to wearing mismatched socks every day. He got a lot of satisfaction watching Kid’s eye twitch, but the twitch had yet to cover the new hole in his life where Maka used to be.

Soul wouldn’t be nearly as pissed at Kid if Maka hadn’t gone along with his dumbass idea. She said she respected Kid’s wisdom and that Soul should, too.

“We’ve gotten stronger together all these years,” she had said softly, “but now it’s time for us to grow stronger on our own.”

Bull. Shit.

Pippa whirled him around in her hands again. “Watch out for the end of the scythe!” he yelled. The tip came dangerously close to the hardwood floor.

“I am!” she fired back.

Maybe he was too hard on her. She was getting better— _slowly_. Still, her hands felt wrong. Her commands felt wrong. Her _soul_ felt wrong. Stein had told them they had a decent resonance considering Pippa’s inexperience, but it was a far cry from the resonance he’d had with Maka.

Maka. He hadn’t seen her since she packed up her stuff and moved in with Finn. Not only were they no longer partners, they weren’t even friends, and he had no idea why.

Pippa’s arrival in their apartment had made things worse. Without asking, she reorganized the kitchen cabinets and put her shoes beside the front door where Maka had always kept hers. Now Soul couldn’t even find a damn snack in his own place, and every time he saw those shoes it reminded him that his partner had abandoned him to a meister incapable of handling him.

Clang! Soul dropped to the ground again.

He transformed back, glaring up at his new meister. “What was that?”

Pippa shrugged helplessly. “I saw Maka do it once.”

“Seeing is not the same as doing,” Soul said, reminding himself that he was meant to be her teacher. He suddenly had more respect for Stein. Teaching was a pain in the ass. “Let the heavy end of the scythe do the work. Remember, you’re just guiding it.”

Miraculously, Pippa managed to keep him above ground for the rest of their training session.

Afterward, they returned to the apartment. Pippa took her turn cooking, while Soul did some much-needed sweeping in the kitchen.

“You’re a good teacher,” Pippa said suddenly.

“What?”

“You’re a good teacher. Finn never could explain to me how to handle him like you did. As much as I hate being separated from Finn,” Pippa blushed, “I think Lord Death maybe did know what he was doing. Finn’s probably learning a lot from Maka, too.”

Soul’s chest tightened. “He probably is. Maka’s…great.”

“I still don’t know why Lord Death separated _you two_ , though. I can see how it benefits Finn and me, but you and Maka…we’re just dragging you both down, aren’t we?”

Soul sank into one of the kitchen chairs. “It was for Maka’s soul perception. Kid said she and I were too close for her to strengthen her skill any further.”

“Too close?” Pippa’s blush deepened. “So you _are_ a couple?”

“We’re not a couple,” he said. It lacked the usual bite he’d once used to refute the common misconception.

“Oh. You broke up?”

“We were never together,” he said.

Pippa balked. “Then why have you never dated anyone? I know tons of girls have asked you out.”

Soul furrowed his brow. Why hadn’t he? Between hunting souls to become a death scythe and his problems with the black blood, he hadn’t spent a lot of time mulling over his single status. Maka had always been there when he needed a date to a party or function.

“I’ve been busy,” he said defensively.

“Busy?”

“Busy!” he said. It was a legitimate reason, and he didn’t want to explain the black blood or his near death experiences to her again. She’d nearly run screaming from the room the first time he brought up the little demon.

“That’s a lame excuse, Soul,” she said. She turned back to the cooking, ignoring his dumbfounded look.

 


	2. Balance

Two months into their partnership, Maka and Finn were getting the hang of things. She lengthened her attacks to accommodate the shorter blade of the axe, and learned to be more observant of her surroundings. She had coached Finn on being her eyes while she fought, but it was new to him. Soul had watched out for her naturally.

Soul also had a more balanced fighting style. He could calculate a strategy or talk Maka down when she became more passionate than wise, but also knew when to go with his gut. Finn was _only_ a strategist. He always took the least risky path and kept his cool. While Maka didn’t doubt Finn was ready to fight to the death for her, he was cautious.

Finn’s caution was low tonight. It was their second assignment to the same city up north in only a week, which was odd in itself, but it had given Finn confidence that they would have success like before.

“Ready to try Witch Hunter again?” Maka asked breathlessly. Her legs burned as she chased after their target—a killer from Kid’s list.

“Ready!” Finn said eagerly.

Their soul resonance wavered at first, but then gained strength as Maka’s soul encouraged it. She guided her own wavelength using soul perception to find the right rhythm. There! She had it!

“Witch Hunter!” she cried, blasting the attack at the killer.

The man’s life was over in an instant.

The killer had gained a good distance from them, and unlike their success earlier that week, Maka leisurely walked to where his soul floated, still holding the battle-axe in her hands. It gave her the time to notice the irregularity in the soul.

“Hold on,” she said to Finn. “Something…doesn’t look right.” The soul wriggled and stretched before her eyes, rather than floating calmly in place.

Finn took his human form beside her, studying the soul through squinting eyes. “It looks all right to me.”

“Don’t eat this just yet,” she said. “I want Kid to take a look at it.”

Before they could capture it, the soul shuddered and burst apart with a bright flash.

“What the fuck!” Finn yelled, leaping back.

Maka grimaced, searching the area for something—or someone—that could have interfered with the soul. Someone like a witch.

Treaty or not, some witches would rather kill meisters and weapons than make friends with them. She extended her soul perception, but all she saw were regular souls drifting harmlessly in the night.

And then—

“There!” she said. “It’s a witch!”

“A witch?” Finn took a step closer, putting his hand on hers protectively. She ignored the wrongness of it, and the desire for it to be a pianist’s hand instead.

“A soul, a few blocks south, moving away from us. It looks strange.” An odd ring glowed around the soul, reminding her of the view she’d seen of Saturn through the DWMA’s telescope. “Soul protect,” she whispered. She focused all her energy into her soul perception until the ring vanished.

A witch’s soul appeared. A cruel, dark witch’s soul.

“I don’t think we should go after it with just us here,” Finn said. His hand gripped hers painfully.

It wasn’t something Soul would have said, but Soul was a death scythe. “You’re right. Danger aside, that witch could be a coincidence, and we could screw up the treaty with the witches if we harm one of their own.”

 

Back in Death City, Maka and Finn gave a report of what happened on their mission.

“Are you sure?” Kid asked. “You’ve never been able to see past soul protect before.”

Maka nodded. “I’m sure.”

“How would you explain an exploding soul otherwise?” Finn asked.

“There are other ways for a soul to explode,” Maka said, remembering Giriko. “But a normal soul doesn’t do that.”

Kid crossed his arms with a frown. “This isn’t going to be good for our treaty with the witches.”

“I’ll testify if I have to,” Maka said. “And maybe one of the witches could test if I can see through their soul protect to prove it?”

“It’s an idea,” Kid said. “I’ll try diplomacy first. They might not like what this witch is up to either. We can’t know.”

Maka and Finn finished their report and were out the door when Kid stopped her. “And congratulations! It looks like your soul perception has really developed. Maybe you should tell Soul about it.”

Maka winced inwardly. “Maybe next time I see him,” she said lightly.

She followed Finn down the hallway, reentering the academy from the Death Room. Her mind raced at the thought of telling Soul of her success. She had hardly seen him—or any of their friends, aside from Kid—since they dissolved their partnership.

“I gotta say, I’m amazed your soul perception has grown so much already,” Finn said.

“Me too.”

“I wish I could say I helped you, but…” he trailed off, his feet shuffling to a stop in the hallway. “I don’t think I had anything to do with your progress.”

That threw her. “You’re my partner! Of course you help me,” she said.

“No,” Finn ran a hand through his hair, a paler blonde than her own. He smiled at her weakly, his handsome face lost in shadows. “It’s become clear to me, and I understand Pippa so much better…”

Maka chewed on her lip. “What do you mean?”

“Remember that day in the library? We talked about unequal partnerships?” Maka nodded. “I was sure that I could hold my own against you. I don’t know why I thought I could so easily replace a death scythe. I was so—arrogant.”

“We’ve only been partners a couple months,” she hurried to say, grasping where he was going with his speech. “It took Soul and I a lot longer than this to get to the level we were at.”

Finn slumped against the wall. “Maka…you and Soul were better partners. Don’t cover it up.”

“But we had problems, as you know very well.” Her feelings had ruined everything.

“I know…and I…exploited them. That day in the library.”

“Exploited?” Her eyes narrowed.

Finn took a deep breath. “I knew Soul was there in the library. You know I’m a strategist. I wanted a better partner, and I had been scouting you for months, trying to figure out how I could possibly get you to be my partner.” He flushed. “It started off as an ambitious desire to become a better weapon, but the more I watched and got to know you, the more I just wanted to get you _away_ from him. It’s why I made sure he heard you had feelings for him. I knew he didn’t know. As jealous as I was…I’d studied him enough to figure that much out.”

Maka reeled back. Blood roared in her veins. How many times had she regretted that conversation and wished that she could go back in time and stop Soul from learning the truth? The Book of Eibon would have gone differently. She might have been able to maintain their friendship.

“Say something,” Finn urged her. His eyes glistened in scarcely repressed pain.

“I don’t know what to say. I’m hurt that you would orchestrate something like that. Something that hurt me. You’re supposed to be my weapon.”

“I wasn’t your weapon then! I would never do anything to hurt you, now. Never.”

She scoffed. “I suppose it was inevitable that Soul and I wouldn’t last. I’m just…a friend.” Hardly that these days. She’d stayed busy training Finn and building up her soul perception whenever she could in an effort to avoid her ex-weapon.

“I know he hurt you,” Finn said, moving to take her hands in his. “I won’t do that. I care about you…as more than a partner.” His blue eyes bore into hers and she had to look away. She searched for his soul, finding the truth in its pounding wavelength.

“I’m sorry. I’m not ready for that yet.” She hoped he understood that she hadn’t recovered from Soul yet. Hadn’t _begun_ to recover. “You’re still a wonderful partner, though. Don’t doubt yourself.”

His wavelength gave a palpable pulse. Maka often wished she was better at reading the feelings and personalities of souls, but she didn’t need Stein’s assistance to decipher Finn’s soul to see she’d broken his heart.

 

 

Pippa rambled about the DWMA anniversary party the whole way to the Death Room. From what Soul gathered, she was wearing some sort of _fancy_ dress and styling her hair in a _fancy_ way. Soul didn’t care what she wore, but he tried to be a good partner and listen. The British accent should have made her more tolerable to listen to. It didn’t.

He was ready for the party tonight to be over and done with so his partner would return to normal. She’d badgered him to get a date, which he’d refused. Then she’d badgered him to at least go with her as friends. He hadn’t relented until he realized all of _his_ friends were going with dates.

Just a year ago, they had attended as a group of platonic friends. Platonic. He laughed to himself. Maybe he’d always been a little delusional about romance. Maka had asked him to dance, brought him food—how stupid was he?

He only hoped the meeting with Kid wasn’t about another secret kishin being kept under the school. That was the last thing he needed today.

Entering the Death Room, Soul’s stomach lurched when he saw Maka and Finn already standing in front of Liz and Kid. Kid wore his ceremonial mask and cloak. This was serious then. Soul’s worries about a kishin under the school unexpectedly gained some legitimacy.

Pippa clammed up beside him, her eyes leeching onto Finn. If Soul was delusional about romance, Finn was downright blind. Pippa was practically undressing the man. Uncool.

“Thank you for coming,” Kid said formally.

“No problem, Kid,” Soul said. He purposefully hiked up his pant legs to show that one sock was red, the other white.

Underneath that death mask, Soul was certain Kid’s eye was twitching up a storm.

“His name is Lord Death,” Pippa corrected him in a whisper. She fidgeted beside him, looking furtively from Kid to Finn.

“Nah, Kid’s Kid,” Soul said, nodding at Maka in what he hoped was a casual hello. He remembered Pippa telling him last night that Maka’s soul perception had grown exponentially. He just hoped Maka couldn’t read his soul like Stein could. If nothing else, he didn’t want her to know how much he missed being her partner.

He suddenly caught Liz’s glare. She must not like his socks either. Of course she didn’t. Lately, Liz and Kid had been inseparable, and Patti had been seen with them less and less. Rumors swarmed the school, but Soul hadn’t dared ask either of them what was actually going on. He’d hated it when others pried into his partnership with Maka, he wasn’t about to do it to Liz and Kid.

Kid cleared his throat. “I’ve called you four here for a special mission. Maka, Finn, as you already know, a rogue witch has been causing trouble up north.”

“A rogue witch?” Pippa squeaked. She ducked down, her dark bangs obscuring her eyes.

“After speaking extensively with the witches, I’ve learned that this witch was one of the kishin’s followers,” Kid said. “Stein investigated the area where Finn and Maka last saw her and found a strange presence coming from a nearby forest. Madness.”

“Madness?” Maka asked. “I didn’t sense that when we were there.” She glanced at Soul. It hadn’t been so long that he couldn’t tell she was worried about him. He looked away, focusing on Kid.

“Stein suspects that before the kishin retreated to his hideout on the moon, he hid in that forest,” Kid explained. “The witch has preserved the madness he left behind there, and that’s why there have been a large number of humans on my list from that region. They’re feeding on the madness.”

“Is that why that soul—exploded?” Finn asked.

Soul grimaced. Exploding souls were never good.

“The witch was likely trying to cover her tracks and avoid Maka’s soul perception. She was probably afraid that if Maka had a better chance to study the soul, she’d discover what was going on.”

“So a witch is causing people to go crazy up north. What are we supposed to do about it? We can’t kill witches anymore,” Soul said.

Kid grinned. “The witches’ council, in an act of good faith, has given us permission to dispose of her. They aren’t too fond of the witch spreading madness either.”

“Are we all going—together?” Pippa asked, looking at Maka and Finn.

“That’s the plan, if you accept,” Kid said. “I thought it would be good practice for you and Finn. Maka and Soul know what they’re doing. They’ll be able to handle anything the witch throws at them. She’s a kitten compared to Arachne.”

Soul cracked his knuckles in anticipation. “Kid, this makes me just happy enough that I think I’ll start wearing matching socks again.” He wasn’t sure what made him happier: the mission to kill a witch, or that he was going with Maka.

“So you _were_ doing it on purpose!” Liz howled, lunging at him.

Soul ducked behind Pippa. “Call off your weapon!” he yelled at Kid.

“Not until you take off those abominations to symmetry!”

 

 

For the first time in years, Maka wasn’t looking forward to the DWMA anniversary party. Between the death of Kid’s father, her broken friendship with Soul, and now the fight with Finn, she wasn’t in the mood to celebrate anything.

But she wanted to cheer Finn up, so she put on a dress and a smile. Her partner’s soul had been flickering pitifully the past few days since his confession. She hoped the mission to destroy the witch would help him. It wasn’t going to help _Maka_ feel any better.

She was a little pissed at Kid for assigning her and Soul to this mission together. Why not Black Star and Tsubaki? Maka wasn’t harboring undying feelings of love for Black Star. Maybe Kid’s judgment was off now that he was working to overcome his obsession to symmetry. He had made significant progress. Recently, Maka had seen Kid alone with Liz more and more—no Patti at all. Even using Liz as his only weapon on a couple missions.

For the first time in months, Maka thought back to the Book of Eibon. Liz and Kid alone? Her cheeks reddened.

“Something on your mind?” Finn asked, adjusting his tie as he joined her in their apartment’s tiny living room.

“Just wondering why Kid didn’t assign Tsubaki and Black Star on the witch mission, too.”

Finn pursed his lips. “He has confidence in our abilities. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“You’re probably right,” she said. “And this way I can make Black Star jealous that we got the best mission.”

 

The anniversary party was as elaborate as ever—maybe a little more so. A dozen witches were in attendance, and they had tweaked many of the decorations. Glowing lanterns floated overhead, raining harmless sparks down on the guests below. Maka was enchanted.

The moment she looked away from the decorations, she was squashed against an exuberant Patti and Tsubaki.

“You’re here!” Patti said, not releasing Maka from the hug until she was choking for air.

“Yes—of course I am,” she said. “I wouldn’t miss this.”

Tsubaki smiled. “I’m glad. We haven’t seen you at all since you and your handsome partner teamed up,” she said. Maka glanced over to Finn to see a group of his friends had attacked him as well.

“Handsome!” Maka forced a laugh. “Do you want me to introduce you two?”

Tsubaki flushed. “Oh. No. I have…Black Star now. Didn’t you know?”

Maka’s eyes widened. “Are you kidding?”

Patti giggled. “She’s not kidding!”

“It’s pretty new,” Tsubaki said. “We’ve been feeling things out since…since the Book of Eibon, actually, though it really started to come together after the battle on the moon. You wouldn’t think so, but Black Star has been so patient and sweet with me,” she added, glowing with happiness.

“Since the Book of Eibon? Really?” Maka murmured, flushing.

“Sorry!” Tsubaki said. “I know you hate to talk about it. I can’t imagine how traumatizing it was for you.”

Patti’s cheeks were as rosy as Maka’s felt. “I think that first chapter was the best thing to ever happen to me.”

“What do you mean?” Maka asked.

Her question answered itself when Kilik came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

What the _hell_ was going on?

“I can’t believe—both of you, too?” Maka asked, openly pointing at Kilik and Patti.

“You haven’t been around for us to tell you,” Patti said excitedly.

Tsubaki wrung her hands together guiltily. “Liz also warned us to ease you into it. She said it might bother you with what happened in the book—”

Maka held up at hand. “I get it. No one wants to bring back the awful memory of me seeing them naked. Message received.”

“You didn’t see all of us naked,” Kilik reminded her with a smirk.

“Maybe you weren’t naked in _your_ fantasy,” Patti teased.

“Patti!” Tsubaki chastised.

Maka searched frantically for Finn, hoping he would save her, but he had gotten lost with his own friends. “I really don’t want to talk about that horrible book,” she said.

“I’m sorry,” Tsubaki said. “It’s just become a lot easier to talk about since everyone’s mostly worked things out.”

“Everyone?” Maka couldn’t seem to catch her breath. What was going on? She had a new partner for a couple months and all her friends paired up! “I need something to drink.”

Walking on wobbly legs to the refreshment table, Maka heard her friends’ whispers behind her. Patti sent Kilik away so they could have “girl talk” without him.

“We shouldn’t have told her,” Patti grumbled.

“We couldn’t keep hiding forever. Black Star was about to implode from all the secrecy.”

Maka downed the fruity punch. It went down tastelessly. “I don’t understand why you thought you had to hide it from me. Yes,” she took a long breath, “I have a painfully accurate idea of what you’re doing in the bedroom with the person you’re dating thanks to that stupid book, but I’m still happy for you guys.”

Okay, so maybe she was half happy and half insanely jealous. But she was all right. It wasn’t like Kid and Liz were…a couple. Her eyes caught sight of the new Lord Death and one of his weapons—holding hands as they chatted with Black Star.

“You don’t look happy,” Patti said.

“See? We shouldn’t have told her yet,” Tsubaki said.

“Stop talking about me like I’m not here!” Maka said. “I’m fine. I’m happy for you all. Really happy. I’m just confused. This is a lot to take in all at once.”

“We shouldn’t have ambushed you,” Tsubaki said. “But when else were we going to tell you? We never see you.”

Maka crunched the plastic cup in her hand. “I’ve been training a new partner. It’s a lot of work to train someone new. And my soul perception is all wonky…” she trailed off, knowing they were just excuses.

Unable to contain her curiosity, Maka released her soul perception on the room. She grappled with the overwhelming sensations it brought. She could feel the affection between the couples—from Kid and Liz to Kilik and Patti. It was as strong as the connection between Stein and Marie. Even Black Star’s soul seemed to reach unconsciously for Tsubaki’s from across the ballroom.

Her throat felt thick. Damn it, she was going to cry.

“I’m not…I’m not feeling well,” she said. “Please tell Finn I went home sick? And that I’m sorry.”

“Maka—” Tsubaki’s dark eyes filled with pity. Maka had to get away from it. The pity, the jealousy, the anger—before Soul arrived. She wasn’t sure what she’d do if she saw him, but right now she felt like kicking his ass.

 

 

Soul arrived at the anniversary party late thanks to Pippa. She’d been nearly ready to leave when the heel of her shoe broke. Instead of simply switching shoes, she had to find an entirely different dress to match the new shoes. It had been a trying ordeal from the sounds of cursing that came from Pippa’s bedroom. They were similar to the curses she used when they were out on missions.

Pippa was a little crazy.

“Uh—Soul?” Pippa asked, clutching his arm.

“What?”

“Is—is Lord Death dating one of his weapons?”

Soul cringed as his gaze followed Pippa’s. Sure enough, Liz and Kid were in a corner of the ballroom.

“By the way her legs are wrapped around him, I’m going to say yes,” Soul answered. What was going on? First Black Star and Tsubaki, then Kilik and Patti. Now Kid and Liz.

Someone must have put something in the DWMA’s water.

“Oh! There’s Finn!” Pippa said.

“Is Maka with him?” Soul asked unthinkingly. He hadn’t wanted Pippa to know he was searching for his old partner.

“No. He’s with his friends. I’m going to go say something to him.” She put her hands on her hips. “Will you be fine on your own for a while?”

“I’ll survive,” he drawled.

Pippa sashayed away happily. Alone and feeling awkward, Soul decided to track down his own friends. Black Star found him first.

“Hey Soul! Going stag?” he asked.

“I came with Pippa,” he said, gesturing in her direction.

“I see she already ditched you for Maka’s new partner,” Black Star said. “Can’t you hold onto your partners, man?”

Soul made a noncommittal noise. “Speaking of, do you know where Maka’s at? I thought she came with Finn.”

“She already left,” Black Star said.

“Already?” Soul asked. He ignored the unexplainable pang in his chest. “Was she all right?” His eyes flashed to Finn.

“Tsubaki and Patti pissed her off talking about the Book of Eibon, they said.”

Soul froze. “Why the hell were they talking about that?” he asked, regaining his senses. “I thought it was an unwritten rule to never bring it up.”

“That’s just you and Maka,” Black Star laughed. “The rest of us don’t care, now they we get to act out the first chapter in real life.”

“Maka saved your asses in that book,” he reminded him. “If she doesn’t want to talk about it, you shouldn’t force it.”

“It wasn’t me!” Black Star said. “I think the girls just got carried away.”

Then Soul processed what Black Star had said. “Wait a minute.” It felt like a bolt of knowledge had struck him. Black Star and Tsubaki. Kid and Liz. Patti and Kilik. All couples. All were in the book. Fuck. Maybe Maka had been wrong.

But that would mean who he saw and what he did…

“So…you…all saw each other in the book?” Soul asked, feeling warm as something weird began to simmer in his belly. Something dirty and wrong and so _right_ all at once.

“Yeah. I know Maka had a theory that it was just people in the book, but there’s no way that’s true.” It was like Black Star was reading his mind. “I think we saw who we wanted most. Liz, Patti, Kilik—they all agreed with me and Tsubaki.”

Soul dragged his hand down his face, feeling like a world-class idiot. “Are you sure?”

“Well, if we could get your and Maka’s opinions, we’d be sure.” Black Star waggled his eyebrows. “So did you see who I thought you saw?”

“Who do you think I saw?” Soul asked, flashing his teeth with a growl.

“Why don’t you just confess your sins to your god? I can tell you’ve been twisted up in all kinds of freaky guilt about it.” He laughed, ignoring the vicious expression Soul was making. “You were the last one she went to save, too. You’d been in that chapter a long time. I bet she caught you doing something nasty—”

Soul turned on his heel and left. Pippa would have to find her own way home. He needed to be alone.

 

 

The day after the anniversary party they traveled to where Maka and Finn had found the witch. They had taken one of Kid’s planes that, with the help of witch magic, didn’t need a pilot. The flight would only take a few hours to reach their destination, and then they would hunt.

Pippa was brimming with excitement, and she reminded Maka of Patti whenever she acted as meister: wild but deadly. Pippa also kept Finn occupied, which was good for Maka. His soul still seeped sadness whenever she looked at it, though it cheered considerably when Pippa talked to him.

Soul sat across from Maka, gazing out the window. When she snuck a peek at his wavelength, it vibrated in a way she had never seen before. He was in turmoil. Was he still angry about being partners with Pippa, or was it something else? For a split second, she wanted to look deeper and learn exactly what was bothering him, but she held back. It wasn’t fair to use her soul perception to dissect people as Stein would. Though she desperately wanted to.

“Stop looking at me like that,” Soul said. He hunched his shoulders protectively around himself. She must have been staring.

“Sorry,” she said. She decided to be upfront with him. “Your wavelength is all over the place.”

Soul shrugged. “I’m just ready to kill this witch and go back home.”

Maka bit down on her lip. “Did you not want to come with us?” she asked quietly, though Pippa and Finn were too consumed in their own conversation to pay them any attention.

“What? No, I wanted to come,” he said. “It’s just weird doing a mission with you as someone else’s weapon.”

Maka nodded. “It is a little strange, but Kid was right. My soul perception has really improved.”

Soul slumped down his seat, the picture of aloofness. His soul, which she was still eagerly peeking at, remained in turmoil. “Do you think we’ll go back to being partners after this? Your soul perception isn’t going to improve much more than it has. That was the whole reason Kid separated us, after all.”

Maka hesitated to answer. “I don’t think so.”

If possible, his wavelength grew more erratic. “Why is that? We were—we were great together.”

“We were,” she said softly, “but it wasn’t going to last even if Kid hadn’t interfered.” She summoned her courage. “I would have asked to dissolve our partnership myself.”

Soul’s red eyes went back to the window, watching the fields and trees pass below them. He was silent for a long moment. “Did you want to end it because of me?”

“No. Because of me,” she said. “I didn’t want to hide forever.”

“I see,” he muttered. And that was that.

 

 

Soul was a tad bloodthirsty when they arrived in the forest Stein had mapped out for them. Stein had handed over the map with a warning to Soul. “Don’t forget you’re with a new partner. You’re more susceptible to the madness of your black blood.”

“I have a grip on it,” Soul had replied.

“I’ll say this. It was hard for me to resist the pull. Be careful,” Stein had finished.

Surrounded by trees that seemed to purge madness, Soul understood what Stein was talking about. The pull of the madness was there. It wasn’t as bad as Asura, but it was unpleasantly alluring.

“I’m not going to transform until the last possible minute,” Soul warned Pippa. “It’ll be better that way.”

Pippa paled. “Your—your blood?” she asked.

“Yeah. It’s not bad yet, so don’t worry.” He looked to Maka who was openly listening. “Maka, you’ll tell me if my wavelength goes berserk, right?”

“I will.”

“Good.”

In an act of solidarity, Finn stayed in human form, too. Maka would know when they needed to shift, regardless. Her soul perception led them safely through the forest, her eyes focused on the witch beyond the trees. There was no path but the natural one left by animals, so Finn, Soul, and Pippa followed Maka single file, watching her for cues.

Soul had to hide a smirk as he watched Finn maneuver the path. Finn looked ready to jump at every shadow, and he relentlessly scanned the trees for enemies in obvious paranoia.

Soul thought it was just a quirk of the weapon until he saw Pippa and Maka begin to do the same thing.

“Do you feel like someone’s watching you?” Pippa hissed to him.

“Now I do!” Soul snapped. The back of his neck prickled with goose bumps.

“The witch is up ahead,” Maka said. “Any last minute questions about strategy?”

“No questions. Let’s kill this bitch,” Soul said. He was eager to jump into his scythe form and slice things. The little demon whispered in his ear to _kill, lose control, kill, kill, kill_. Soul ignored him.The faster they accomplished their goal, the sooner the madness would leave.

Another prickle of paranoia ran down Soul’s back. He looked behind him—two large yellow eyes stared at him from the darkness.

“Hello, boys and girls,” a disembodied voice whispered. “Welcome to my forest.”

“Pippa!” Soul warned before he clutched her hand and shifted instantly into a scythe.

His transformation was just in time. An owl—no, a mutation of an owl—swooped down toward them from the treetops. The creature was huge, with a seven-foot wingspan and a beak as sharp as his scythe’s blade.

“Block!” Soul instructed as the bird barreled down on them. The bird’s beak opened to reveal hundreds of tiny sharp fangs just before it clamped down on a mouthful of scythe. The bird retreated, but only briefly.

“What the hell!” Pippa said, swiping at the bird again.

Glancing behind him, checked on Maka and Finn. Something was wrong. Maka crumpled down under the weight of the battle-axe, dropping him with a scream.

“You’re burning hot!” she said.

Soul knew all too well what the problem was, and panic took hold of him. She was in a fight with a witch without a weapon.

“Pippa, resonate!” he said, ignoring the insistent murmurs from the little demon. _Let go. Protect Maka with the black blood._

“Got it!” Pippa said.

Soul realized his mistake too late. The moment he and Pippa resonated he felt the euphoria emanating from the madness within him.

“She’s susceptible to madness,” the little demon crooned. “This will be easy.”

The demon grabbed Soul by the ankle and pulled—plunging him into the abyss of black blood.

 

 

The bird finally noticed Maka standing behind Pippa. Maka ducked to the ground, narrowly avoiding its snapping beak. It screeched loudly when it missed.

“The witch is still up ahead,” Maka told Finn. She could see the witch’s soul glowing brightly in the dark.

“We won’t get anywhere until we take care of this owl,” Finn said.

And Maka was weaponless.

“Try picking me up one more time,” he said desperately.

She wrapped her hands around Finn’s handle, but as the heat sizzled through her gloves, she was forced to drop him.

She could only wonder at the reason. The sadness in his soul from her rejection, or her own feelings of resentment. He’d set out to sabotage her partnership with Soul, and as much as she tried, she wasn’t sure she could forgive Finn for that.

Whatever the cause, Maka and Finn couldn’t resonate like this. She should have tested their resonance before they came here to find a witch. She should have known better.

“We’ll just have to support Soul and Pippa,” Maka told Finn as he shifted back.

“Right,” he said.

“Soul can do this. He’s a death scythe,” Maka said.

“But—that black blood stuff. Is he okay?” Finn said. He watched Soul and Pippa with a shrewd eye.

Maka started to focus on Soul again, but an explosive attack suddenly rained on them from the darkness. She and Finn ran for cover, sticks and leaves smacking into them as the explosion roared past them.

Through the dusty air, Maka saw Soul and Pippa. Pippa seemed to be struggling, but not with the owl—with Soul.

“Soul! Snap out of it!” Pippa screamed.

“What’s going on?” Finn asked, panting. His jaw clenched as he watched Pippa leap away from the owl again.

“His black blood,” Maka said, finally seeing his soul clearly. “I don’t know if she can handle it. She doesn’t have my resistance.” Pippa’s wavelength quivered under the assault from the black blood.

“We need to trade—” An explosion kept Finn from finishing as they scattered away from the attack. Maka knew what he wanted to say. She’d been thinking it since she realized the axe was too heavy to pick up.

Eerie, unnatural laughter echoed through the trees. Pippa.

“Shit!” Maka cried out as Pippa suddenly turned toward Maka’s hiding place. Pippa twirled Soul in her hands, drunk on the power of the black blood. Her dark eyes blazed with insanity.

Pippa snickered as she threw a distorted version of Witch Hunter at Finn and Maka, nearly incinerating them both. Her poor aim was all that kept them alive. Maka hoped it was more than poor aim, that it was actually Soul and Pippa fighting to maintain their sanity.

Finn let out a string of curses as Pippa sent another careless attack into the forest, flattening every tree in its vicinity.

Pippa twisted the scythe in her hand as the owl swooped down on her again. This time, she grabbed the owl by the beak with one hand and sliced the head clear off.

“Goodnight, Mr. Owl!” Pippa laughed, kicking the monster’s head. It bounced toward Finn, leaving a bloody trail behind.

“She’s lost it,” Finn said. “Completely lost it.”

Despite the madness, Pippa’s attacks were successful at drawing out the witch.

“How dare you hurt my pet!” the witch said, roaring out of her hiding place. She had the same cruel beauty as Arachne, though her features matched those of her dead familiar. Waist-length gray hair tangled in the wings sprouting from her back. She could have been an angel except for the black talons she had for fingernails.

With one last look at the witch, Maka dashed toward Pippa and Soul, intent on tearing the scythe and his madness away from the other meister. But with a flap of gray, feathery wings, the witch sent Maka flying back with an unnatural force of wind.

Maka landed across a fallen tree, breathless.

“Maka!” Finn said. “You all right?”

“I’m fine!” she said, already back on her feet.

Finn partially transformed his arm. The axe’s blade glinted in the moonlight. “I’ll distract them! You get to Soul and Pippa.”

Maka stayed behind the trees this time, away from the open areas. Finn called out directions to her, keeping the witch and Pippa distracted as he wielded his arm like an actual axe, chopping down tree after tree. It was a genius idea. Each tree he felled was large enough to send the witch and Pippa darting out of the way, and his directions kept Maka out of the fall zone.

She set her eyes on Pippa. The meister was lost to the black blood, her attacks manic and jerky, with no real target in mind. The witch had no idea a weapon had come into her forest with black blood in his veins, and her attacks fell short against him. She kept flapping her wings at Pippa, but powered by the black blood, Pippa was immovable.

Maka faltered, suddenly fearful of what would happen if she tore Soul away from Pippa while they continued to use soul resonance. Would Pippa remain under the influence of the black blood?

Maka huffed, reaching out with her soul perception. She would just have to overpower Pippa’s soul with her own. But that would involve taking hold of Soul at the same time—without getting beheaded like the owl monster.

“Now, Maka!” Finn yelled. He cut a tree down. It was directed to fall perfectly onto the witch. Maka took the opportunity.

“Soul!” Maka roared, racing toward him. “Don’t you dare take my head off!”

“Chop, chop!” Pippa giggled, swinging the scythe violently. Maka tackled her, the blade of the scythe nicking her ankle. “Whoops!” Pippa giggled again.

“Sorry!” Maka said as she elbowed Pippa in the chin. It gave her the chance to grab Soul’s handle and she charged her soul at Pippa’s. The wavelength fought to repel Maka’s, madness holding onto Pippa firmly. “Get a hold of yourself!” Maka snarled. She willed Pippa to listen, to remember who she was. Buried in the mayhem of Pippa’s wavelength, Maka caught sight of something straight from Pippa’s mind—an image of Finn’s smiling face.

And finally, the black blood melted away from Pippa and released its grip on the girl.

Pippa went limp, her fingers sliding off the scythe at last. Maka clenched the handle with both hands, standing victoriously to face the witch.

“Finn! Get Pippa out of here!” Maka said. “Soul and I will take care of this.”

Soul’s wavelength writhed at the abrupt change in meister, the black blood scurrying away in fright from her imposing wavelength. She didn’t have time to wait for him to adjust before she ran toward the witch. She needed to give Finn time to carry Pippa to safety.

“Soul,” Maka said softly, sending her gentle wavelength to his discordant one. “Resonate with me. Please.”

His soul shuddered and glowed radiantly. The erratic wavelengths—the turmoil from earlier, too—vanished. The beginnings of soul resonance lit up between them.

“Maka,” Soul greeted. “It feels good to be in your hands again.”

“You say the sweetest things when I’m about to send you through a witch’s skull,” she replied, attempting to do exactly that when another flap of the witch’s wings attempted to cast her back into the trees. Maka dug the scythe into the dirt, steadying herself.

“Witch Hunter?” Soul asked.

“Yes,” Maka said.

Fully resonating with him was both like coming home and yet completely different. He felt warmer, happier. Contentment washed over them, the black blood’s presence departed, and she sank deeper, falling into the place their souls connected.

His soul caressed hers with unquestionable longing. He may as well have touched her with his hands. She couldn’t stop a moan from escaping.

“Ma—Maka,” Soul stuttered as her soul faithfully returned the caress.

The resonance was heady. Addictive. She could feel something in his soul she hadn’t before, something hot and welcoming that wrapped around her. Her body tingled in pleasure as the scythe pulsed in her hands. She’d never heard of souls communing like this, but it was filling her with power, building, building—

“Witch Hunter!” Maka cried out, swinging Soul forcefully. It was the strongest Witch Hunter they’d ever produced. The witch was obliterated with a crackling wave, taking the oppressive sensation of madness with her.

Only her feathers remained, dispersing with the wind.

Maka collapsed to her knees, unexplainably weak with echoes of pleasure. Soul materialized, still holding her hand. He lay in the grass beside her, a blissed out smile on his face.

“What was that?” he asked her through half-raised eyelids.

“No idea,” she said. She didn’t believe souls could have orgasms, after all.

“Me neither. But I fuckin’ loved it,” he said.

Maka laughed, feeling carefree for the first time in…months.

“You two okay?” Finn yelled from across the destroyed forest. They’d felled enough trees to build a few log cabins.

Maka and Soul looked at one another, assessing each other for injuries. Soul winced as he spied the cut on her ankle from his blade.

“It’s nothing,” she said honestly.

“Well this doesn’t count as you getting hurt on my watch. I was still Pippa’s weapon at the time,” he groused.

When they met up with Finn and Pippa, after confiscating the witch’s soul for Kid, the younger meisters couldn’t contain their amazement.

“What was that?” Finn asked. “Was that really soul resonance?”

“It was,” Maka said. “It must be my soul perception acting up again.” She had no other explanation for the strange interaction she’d had with Soul. An interaction she was curious to try again as soon as she could.

“Soul resonance? That was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen!” Pippa said.

“I think you laughing while you beheaded a bird is the craziest thing _I’ve_ ever seen,” Finn corrected, adjusting her in his arms. Pippa was still too weak from her time under the black blood to walk.

“Sorry about that,” Soul said weakly, his eyes guilt stricken.

Pippa laughed. “No problem. It was fun being invincible for five minutes, but…I think we’ll have to tell Lord Death you’re Maka’s again.” Pippa looked at Finn. “Do you think we could ever pull off what they did?”

Finn smiled. “We’ve been close before, haven’t we?”

Pippa fell back into his arms, letting Finn carry her out of the forest.

Soul reached for Maka’s hand. “You think we can?” he asked a while later, keeping a steady distance behind Finn and Pippa. “Be partners again?”

Maka thought about the new something she’d felt from Soul, and that spectacular experience with soul resonance. “Kid will approve once I tell him I can’t resonate with Finn anymore.”

“But do _you_ want to be partners again?” he asked.

Maka squeezed his hand. “Yes. I…I really missed you.”

 

They walked the rest of the way out of the forest in silence. It was pitch black outside, so they agreed to stay at a hotel for the night. Maka faltered for a moment before deciding to get a separate room from Soul’s, while Finn and Pippa easily agreed to share. Maka had shared with Soul a hundred times in the past, but that was _before_.

She and Soul were on the mend. She had tentatively agreed to come back to him, but she didn’t want to push herself on him too fast. This would take finesse.

“I’ll make the report to Kid,” Soul offered. “What do you say to meeting out in the lobby tomorrow at—ten?”

“Ten sounds good,” Maka said.

Their rooms were conveniently all in row. Finn and Pippa had the one with two queen-sized beds, Maka took the one in the middle, leaving the one farthest from Finn and Pippa to Soul.

They said a brief goodnight to each other. Maka heard mumblings from Pippa and Finn about plans to bandage each other’s cuts and scrapes. Maka felt a twinge as it brought up nostalgic memories of herself and Soul when they were younger, sloppily bandaging each other after missions instead of going to the infirmary as they should have.

By necessity, Soul had gotten better at patching her up, and Maka had learned to do the same for him—though his injuries were less frequent than hers. He’d made up for his lack of injuries all at once. The scar across his chest a trophy to his commitment to protecting her.

The cut on her ankle was the worst of her injuries from the battle with the witch. By her count, she’d gained more scrapes and bruises from Finn dropping trees than from the witch’s attacks. At least her aches would be soothed by nothing more than a long bath.

Maka stripped out of her clothes, shook off the dirt and hung them over a chair haphazardly. Fortuitously, they’d planned for the scenario of staying the night, and she’d brought some pajamas and a change of clothes. She’d also brought her own bubble bath.

After her first fifty missions, Maka had learned that a bubble bath was the best treatment for bruises. It had become such a habit that Soul had learned to jump into the shower before she went into the bathroom. She usually spent an hour in the tub before she was ready to leave.

She slipped under the bubbles, letting the heat of the water sink into her skin. The water was hot, warm, caressing her as gently as her earlier resonance with Soul. Although she doubted the bath water would bring her so close to orgasm.

She still wasn’t sure what had caused the fluke in their soul resonance, but she hoped it happened every time they resonated from now on. She sank deeper into the bubbles, smiling beneath the water. She understood her mother a little better now. Those years Mama had put up with Papa’s endless cheating. It was damn near impossible to give up the man you loved. Maka hadn’t lasted two months before she welcomed Soul back into her—well, hands.

She let her head fall back against the edge of the tub, licking her lips as she remembered how he had pulsed in her hands. The blissful smile on his face as he returned to human form. It reminded her of that moment in the Book of Eibon.

And like she had done so many times at the memory of that book, Maka let her hands slide down between her legs, the memory of Soul’s moans urging her forward.

 

 

Soul shut the hotel door behind him, and took a calming breath. Between losing himself to the black blood, and then the best soul resonance of his life, he needed to be alone to regroup his scattered thoughts.

But first he had to make the report to Kid, who was likely waiting anxiously by the mirror for the call.

Mindlessly rubbing a washcloth on his dirty face with one hand, Soul wrote the code on the mirror with the other.

Kid didn’t immediately answer, much to Soul’s surprise. A minute later Kid appeared with Liz hanging off his arm. They looked like they’d been exercising— _ah_. That was why.

“How did it go? Everyone make it through safely?” Kid asked, discreetly straightening his suit.

“Yeah. A few problems, but we made it out with just a few scrapes and bruises.” He didn’t add that the forest looked like a bomb had gone off in the center.

“Is the madness in the area taken care of then?”

“It disappeared when Maka and I took down the witch.”

Liz bounced into the edge of the mirror’s frame. “Wait—you and _Maka_? What happened to your partners?” She acted a little too giddy about it.

“Pippa couldn’t handle the black blood,” Soul said. “We almost killed Maka and Finn—who were unable to resonate.”

That took away Liz’s giddiness. “Damn. What a fuck up that was.”

Kid’s frown deepened. “All right. I want more details.”

Soul explained everything from the swooping owl with fangs to Finn going lumberjack on the forest. When he reached the part of the report where he and Maka resonated, he stopped short. How could he explain it without implying how sexual it had been?

Maka’s soul had at first soothed his, reining in the black blood. He’d come back to himself almost as soon as she pulled him from Pippa. The instant they began to resonate, however, it had gone from a soothing sensation to utter pleasure. When they had finally utilized Witch Hunter, Soul had almost had a physical orgasm, too. And by the unusual moan that came from Maka, she’d felt it, too.

That was something to analyze later when Kid and Liz weren’t staring at him.

“Maka and I were able to use Witch Hunter to defeat the witch, but it was strange,” Soul said, choosing his words carefully. “It was stronger than it ever has been before. Finn and Pippa agreed with us. It didn’t seem—normal.”

Liz and Kid shared a look, smirking mischievously. “I love when I’m right,” Liz said.

“I wasn’t _wrong_. I agreed with you,” Kid countered.

“What the hell are you two not telling me?” Soul asked. He wanted to reach through the mirror and smack some sense into them.

“Liz?” Kid prompted.

Liz threw her hair over her shoulder, her smirk growing wider. “Well, Soul, we’re all aware of how unobservant you are. Even Black Star could see you and Maka were headed for trouble, and that’s saying something.”

“Do you have a point?”

“I’m getting to it,” Liz said patiently, her smirk still in place. “Kid was concerned for your partnership. After all, you’re two of the best we have at the academy.”

“Our partnership was fine!” Soul said.

Kid sighed. “You really are unobservant. Didn’t you notice how miserable Maka was?”

Soul tightened his hold on the edge of the sink. “She was miserable?” He’d thought she was a little down after they defeated Asura, but he’d blamed that on what happened to Crona.

“She was,” Liz said. “She made an appointment with Kid, and we all knew she was going to ask to dissolve your partnership.”

Shit. Had it really been so bad for her? And he really didn’t notice? He was a goddamn idiot.

“At first,” Kid joined in, “I was going to simply deny her request, but I realized that sooner or later your soul resonance ability would weaken.”

“So we—Kid and I—came up with a plan,” Liz said. “He interceded and ended your partnership before Maka could, claiming her soul perception as the reason. It would direct your anger at Kid, not Maka, and give you two a chance to work on things.”

Soul fumbled. “But her soul perception _has_ strengthened with Finn as her partner.”

“A wonderful coincidence,” Kid said. “My only intention was to save two failing partnerships. Finn and Pippa were struggling as much as you and Maka. Pippa needed guidance from a more experienced weapon, and Finn’s arrogance needed taken down a peg or two.”

“Wasn’t that a bit risky sending us to kill a witch like this?” Soul growled. “We could have been killed!”

“I didn’t know Maka was having trouble resonating with Finn, and I thought you had better control of your black blood,” Kid said, giving Soul a disapproving glare. “You rely on Maka too much to pull you back from the insanity.”

Now Kid was just pissing him off on purpose. “Whatever. So you and the others just set this up so Maka would come crawling back to me?”

Liz snorted. “No. I think it was to make you go crawling back to Maka and get your head out of your ass.”

“My head—what the hell? I never wanted to end our partnership to begin with!” He’d hated every minute they’d been apart.

Kid and Liz shared another all-knowing, irritating look. “His head’s still in his ass,” Liz said.

“Soul, I’m going to help you out because you’re my friend,” Kid said. “While I didn’t suffer through that particular chapter of the Book of Eibon, everyone else has come clean about who they saw in the Lust chapter—except you. Why don’t you just admit to yourself, to Maka, to everyone, who you saw and why?”

Liz giggled into Kid’s shoulder. “If you’re as lucky as the rest of us, you’ll get to act out exactly what you saw in the book.”

“You two are nasty,” Soul said. He gave them the finger as he hung up.

Alone in the hotel bathroom again, he shucked off his clothes. “Why does everyone want to know what I saw in that stupid book? Maka already knows, isn’t that enough?” he grumbled to himself. The guilt hit him again even as his dick began to harden.

That damn book. That damn _chapter_. He hadn’t been able to think of anything else while he touched himself since that day. He hadn’t had an orgasm in months that didn’t involve thinking of his cock sliding against Maka. Using the same restraint he used on his black blood and madness, Soul hid his thoughts and desires from Maka. She didn’t need another man in her life who let his dick do his thinking. So Soul restrained himself until he was alone, and then he let himself think of what he wanted. Maka.

Each time he said it was the last time. Next time he wouldn’t think of her.

But as he stepped into the hotel’s hot shower, he knew he was going to do it again.

His body still hummed from the resonance earlier, and all he had to think about was Maka’s breathless moan and his cock was aching hard. With the wet heat of the water and his hand squeezed around his cock, he could almost remember what it felt like in the book—so close to being inside her. He thought of how her tits had bounced with each thrust, her green eyes glassy with desire. Those long legs wrapped around him, holding him against her. Fuck, it had been so warm.

God, he wanted her. Maybe he should tell her the truth.

Because down in his soul, hidden underneath layers of cynicism and fear, he wanted to be more than her partner. And it terrified him.

A friendly caress reached out, soothing him like it had earlier in the forest. For a moment, he thought it was his imagination in overdrive, but then he felt it again. Maka.

Was she resonating with him—here in the shower?

“It’s all right,” Maka’s voice came to him. “Don’t be afraid.”

“Can you…feel it then?” he said, returning her wavelength.

“I can,” she said. Her soul connected to his, and through it he could feel her elation. “And I know what you were thinking about.”

“Uh, you do?” he asked nervously.

“Yeah. Because…I was thinking something very similar in the bath.”

Maka in the bath. That was good. Very good. “You were thinking about that chapter?”

“What I caught of it, yes. It was interesting to see some of the parts that came before I showed up.” She sounded breathless, though how could a soul be breathless?

“I tried to be a gentleman, I swear,” Soul said even as his hand began to stroke his cock again.

“I like it when you aren’t a gentleman. I’m surely not being a lady over here in my room.”

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“The same thing you are,” she said. She sent a wave of lust at him and he shuddered. He wasn’t going to last long.

“Yeah?” He could picture it perfectly—no, Maka was sending him an image of herself in the bath. He could see her knees peeking out from the bubbles and her arm disappeared down between them. “F—fuck.”

“Mhmm,” she whispered. “Do what you did before. With Witch Hunter.”

He upped his concentration on their soul resonance, stroking his cock faster. “Like this?”

“That’s—yeah,” she moaned.

The pleasure was two-fold. He could feel his cock throbbing from the touch of his palm and his soul entwining with hers. It was so intimate. Her soul beared itself to him, and he returned the favor, showing her what he wanted with complete honesty for the first time, including his fears.

“I’m afraid, too,” she confessed. “But I’m more afraid of what will happen if we don’t try this.”

“Me too. I don’t want another partner. I want you.”

“Are you sure?” she asked. Her soul was so vulnerable, insecure.

He sent back his own confidence in his feelings, praying they’d be enough. “I’m sure.”

Promises made, they quit talking. He let his mind go, showing her every fantasy he’d ever had, pleased to see how willing and eager she was to try them. Had fantasized about many of them herself.

“It’s not fair you know what it’s like to touch me,” Maka moaned, “when I have no idea.”

“I’ll let you find out,” he said through clenched teeth. “We can try out everything I did in the book.”

“Yes, please—please—”

He could feel she was close, her wavelength pulsing faster than before. God, she was dragging him along with her. His balls tightened and he nearly lost his footing in the shower. Oh shit. Fuck!

He heard an echoing cry of pleasure from her, and then their resonance ended, just as it had in the forest.

Soul leaned against the shower wall for support, letting the water wash the come from his hand. His chest heaved as he caught his breath, struggling to wrap his head around what had just happened.

Even if it wasn’t sex, he didn’t care. He’d do it again if Maka gave him the chance. Hell, maybe he should get some clothes on and try it in person. She _was_ just next door.

 

 

Maka rose from the bath on trembling legs. She felt flushed and satisfied, despite the streak of embarrassment she felt realizing she’d just gotten off with Soul, her friend she’d known for years.

At the same time, she shivered because she’d just gotten off with _Soul_.

She hadn’t been able to maintain their resonance once they’d finished, but as she peered through the wall with her soul perception, she saw Soul moving around in the adjacent room. His wavelength was excited and happier than she’d seen it in a while.

With a start, she realized he was probably on his way over.

She grabbed a towel and leapt out of the bath. Running into the bedroom, she furiously toweled her hair as she tugged on the shorts and t-shirt she’d brought as pajamas. Her hair was still damp when the knock came on the door.

Heart pounding double-time, Maka shuffled to the door.

Soul was on the other side, slouching on her doorframe with a sheepish smile. “Do you…wanna hang out?” he asked.

“Hang out?”

“I knocked on the door before I’d thought of something cooler to say,” he admitted, somehow managing to look adorably remorseless.

Maka laughed before she grabbed his shirt and tugged him inside the room. As soon as the door shut, their lips fused together, Maka still fisting the material of his shirt. His lips were warm and smooth, and when her tongue shyly met his, he tasted like minty toothpaste.

“Hmm,” he groaned into her mouth. “Can I—” His hands traced underneath the hem of her t-shirt.

“Only if you do, too.”

With similar enthusiasm, they simultaneously removed their shirts. When they came back together, the press of skin on skin sent a zing straight between Maka’s legs, but Soul didn’t give her much time to think about it before he was reaching to undo her bra. He only took a moment before she felt the strap slacken.

“Ungh,” he mumbled as he helped her slip the bra down her arms. His eyes feasted on her naked breasts.

“Don’t just look. Touch them,” she said impatiently.

She accidentally bit his shoulder when he cupped them roughly in his hands. He spent a lot of time familiarizing himself with them after that, rubbing his thumbs across the nipples, while his teeth kept her lips and tongue busy.

She was a squirming, dripping mess when he finally started backing her up to the bed.

Maka was splayed out on the bed in nothing but her underwear the next moment. Soul towered over her at the end of the bed, jaw slack. “You look—beautiful,” he said.

“Now you realize it?” she teased, grinning up at him.

“No, I’ve known…for a while,” he said. He shrugged out of his pants. “It’s just that I’m your weapon. I’m supposed to protect you. That’s my job.” He knelt over her, hooking his fingers in the sides of her underwear. “But for a long time, I was mixed up about my feelings. I thought all weapons felt protective and possessive of their meisters.”

“Weapon and meister relationships happen more than you think—” she broke off in a hiss when he slid her underwear down her thighs. Her heart was in her throat as she watched his red eyes darken, fixated on the wetness between her thighs.

“I really want to—” he stopped himself, cheeks flushed. “Can I show you?”

She nodded vigorously, her vision blurring when his mouth paused just below her belly button. He dropped a kiss on her lower stomach, trailing down and down. “Oh God. Please tell me you’re going to do what I think—”

He flashed his pointy teeth once in answer before his mouth vanished into her folds. She cried out when his tongue pressed firmly against her clit. He flicked his tongue a little uncertainly, but when Maka grabbed his hair and held him close, he lost his hesitation and began to work her clit with as much dedication as she would expect from her partner. He kept one hand cupped against her ass, holding her close to him, and with his free hand he pushed two fingers inside her.

It took only a couple thrusts of his hand and she was shuddering and crying out in ecstasy. Soul pulled up, licking his lips, which only made her body shudder again. She looked down and saw how hard he was, his cock tenting his boxers painfully tight.

“Already this is beating out what happened in that damn book,” Soul said. “And I’m definitely going to fuck you this time.”

“You better,” she panted, reaching forward and gently touching him through his boxers.

He grunted, and she shoved his boxers down his legs, unable to wait any longer. Her eyes widened as his cock bobbed free. Sure, she had seen other cocks before this—had even caught a glimpse of Soul’s a few times by accident over the years. It was very different to see something up close with the knowledge that he was about to put it _inside_ her.

“Are you okay?” he asked, catching her glance.

“Yes. Just—a little nervous,” she said.

“Me too,” he said. Then he smirked. “I really want to be good at this.”

She giggled, relaxing back onto the bed. “If we’re together, I know it will be good.”

He settled on top of her, placing a soft kiss on her lips. He pulled back a few inches. “You’re still on birth control right?”

Maka startled. “How did you know I was on that?”

“We only lived together for _years_ ,” he reminded her. “You’re still on it, then?”

“Yes. We should be safe,” she said. Her legs curled around his backside, urging him closer. She pressed against him, feeling the wet slide of him against her—hard and smooth. She whimpered as it sent a shiver down to her toes.

Together, they guided him toward her entrance. The head of his cock was blunt and big as it stretched her apart, but it was good, so good. His wavelength tuned into hers again, resonating unconsciously in the back of their minds.

He kissed her sloppily as he sank to the hilt, then promptly drew back and thrust again.

Oh. So _that’s_ how it was.

“Shit,” he gasped. “Does it hurt?”

“No,” she said fervently. She kissed his lips, neck, shoulder. “It feels perfect.”

She could tell he was struggling to restrain himself in a losing battle, so she ground her hips against him, encouraging him to use _her_ for once. Wasn’t she always using him as a weapon for her own means? Now he could use her as the tool. Just the thought made her wetter. She wanted him to use her to come. Wanted him to feel good because of her.

He kept one arm braced on the bed as his hips slammed more and more forcefully into hers, while his other hand landed on her breast, cupping and squeezing pleasantly. She snuck her hand between them, rubbing her clit because she was already close to the edge. His soul was resonating that same powerful pleasure and his cock was stroking her insides so intensely she wanted to scream.

And then she did scream, her walls clenching around him as he cursed and growled into her neck, his cock reaching deep as he came. His soul released hers with a final caress in parting.

Puffs of his breath tickled her neck as he panted to regain his breath. She wriggled at the strange sensation of his softening cock and the stickiness he’d left behind. But she wasn’t ready to let him go yet. She kept her legs and arms around him, holding him against her as her naked prisoner.

“I’m a goddamn idiot,” Soul said into her neck.

“Ah, the words every woman wants to hear after she loses her virginity.”

“I’m sorry. I meant that we could’ve been doing this for ages, but I was an idiot. Liz told me I needed to get my head out of my ass. She was right.”

Maka smiled and kissed his cheek. “It doesn’t matter. Our feelings are a little more equal now.”

“Mhmm, yes,” he replied. “Now…didn’t you want to act out what happened in the Book of Eibon? I think you said as much earlier in the shower.”

“Wasn’t I wearing more than this?” she asked, gesturing to her nakedness.

“Don’t get caught up in the details,” he drawled. “Just start touching yourself.”

Maka was only too happy to oblige.

 

 

The next morning, Soul and Maka were late meeting Finn and Pippa in the lobby. Maka had insisted on another shower, and Soul had thought to save time by joining her.

It had turned into a thirty-minute detour. A very good detour it had been, though.

They came across Pippa and Finn lounging on a couch in the lobby, Pippa’s legs in Finn’s lap.

“Sorry we’re late,” Maka said. “Did you two eat breakfast?”

“Not yet,” Finn said. “The hotel still has some cold cereal out if you guys want to eat that.”

“Sounds good to me,” Soul said. He was starving.

Like it was the most ordinary thing to do, Soul slung his arm over Maka’s shoulders to walk with her to the breakfast room. It was only a moment after he did it that he realized Pippa and Finn were watching them in curiosity. He froze mid-step.

“What?” he snarled half-heartedly.

Pippa giggled. “So that’s what the resonance was about last night.”

“You—you felt that?” Maka asked. Despite her rosy cheeks, she looked positively curious.

“Pippa did,” Finn said. “I felt nothing, thank god.”

“We were just practicing our soul resonance,” Maka said quickly. It wasn’t a complete lie. Her new soul perception trick was causing them to resonate any time their thoughts strayed in the same direction, much to Soul’s delight.

Pippa gave him a knowing smile. “I guess you were just practicing _all night_. Over and over.”

“Shut it,” Soul said. He couldn’t get even an ounce of his typical surliness into the words.

“You know, Pippa, if you were able to feel our resonance, you could have a little soul perception yourself,” Maka said. “Maybe you and Finn should start _practicing_ , too.”

Pippa and Finn spluttered a few denials before they stomped off to find their breakfast, avoiding each other’s eyes.

“You’re amazing,” Soul said in her ear. “Have I told you that before?”

“I think you mentioned it last night,” Maka whispered. “Over and over again.”

He cleared his throat. Suddenly he wasn’t hungry at all. For breakfast. “Checkout isn’t for another hour. Do you wanna—”

“Yes,” she said. She took his hand and dragged him back to the room.

Soul didn’t even mind when the hotel billed them for the late checkout.


End file.
